by TChris

New photos of abuse inflicted on Iraqi prisoners have been acquired by Seymour Hersh at The New Yorker. The sequence of photographs, taken by two cameras over a twelve minute period, depict two German shepherds, restrained by their handlers, barking at a naked Iraqi prisoner. As the dogs pull at their leashes, the prisoner "is leaning against the door to a cell, contorted with terror."

In another, taken a few minutes later, the Iraqi is lying on the ground, writhing in pain, with a soldier sitting on top of him, knee pressed to his back. Blood is streaming from the inmate’s leg. Another photograph is a closeup of the naked prisoner, from his waist to his ankles, lying on the floor. On his right thigh is what appears to be a bite or a deep scratch. There is another, larger wound on his left leg, covered in blood.

Hersh reports on another incident in which dogs were used to attack Iraqi citizens during a sweep in Ramadi in November.

Hersh's sources say "that many senior generals believe that, along with the civilians in Rumsfeld’s office, General Sanchez and General John Abizaid, who is in charge of the Central Command, in Tampa, Florida, had done their best to keep the issue quiet in the first months of the year." Why? Because that's the way Rumsfeld's Pentagon does business.

Secrecy and wishful thinking, the Pentagon official said, are defining characteristics of Rumsfeld’s Pentagon, and shaped its response to the reports from Abu Ghraib. “They always want to delay the release of bad news—in the hope that something good will break,” he said.

No news can be good enough to offset the bad news that continues to pour in from Iraq. Investigators are looking into CIA involvement in the death of an Iraqi prisoner; according to Hersh, "an Army intelligence operative and a judge advocate general were seeking, through their lawyers, to negotiate immunity from prosecution in return for testimony." Rapid court martials of those farthest down the chain of command won't be sufficient to make this tragedy disappear from public view.